This review first appeared in IPW, the newsletter for all discount games club members. Contact colin@allusedgames.demon.co.uk for details. Glory (GMT) ACW wargame Not so long ago, within the hallowed pages of IPW, I stated that I found few U.S. Civil War games fun to play. Blame it on fate, destiny, kismet, divine will or some type of alien abduction and mind probe if you believe in that type of thing, but since I made that statement some good titles have started hitting the stores. Yes, some hopelessly complex fifty page rule book mega dice rolling six weeks to complete monsters have also appeared but who plays 'em? Note I said plays not buys. The type of games I'm interested in are games like 'Across five Aprils' by Victory games and now GMT's 'Glory'. In fact there is more than a passing resemblance between these two titles, but more on that later. Glory simulates three battles: First and Second Manassas (perhaps better known as Bull Run), and Chickamauga. First Manassas saw Union General McDowell become the first to command 30,000 men in U.S. history. Such was his ability that he was only ever trusted with lesser commands thereafter and still managed to do consistently badly. At First Manassas McDowell's rushed out flanking movement was repulsed and he was taken in his own flank by fresh Confederate units and thrown into rout. At Second Manassas the Union Army was commanded by Pope. He had the promise of being a "fighting General", exactly what the Union were looking for. When asked by a reporter where his headquarters would be he replied "in the saddle". At second Manassas he was outclassed by Lee who opposed him and was relieved, it was said, "for keeping his headquarters where his hindquarters should have been". The Union narrowly avoided being taken in both their flank and rear at this battle and, had they not noticed their plight in the nick of time, may well have been annihilated. Finally, at Chickamauga, the Confederates, in a two day battle, succeeded in forcing the Union to fall back on Chattanooga but did not follow up their victory, thereby allowing Union forces to retire unmolested. A copy of Glory comes with two excellent standard sized maps (the Manassas Battles being fought on the same one), four hundred unit counters and the usual collection of rule books, dice, etc. The unit counters feature some very nice icons rather than standard military symbols but, quite needlessly, the Cavalry and Artillery units are a smaller physical size than the Infantry units. All units are colour coded to show what Division or Corps they belong to. Grnphically, the weakest part of this game for me is the box cover art which I do not find that appealling. This, however, is a strictly personnel thing and, who knows, you might consider it a great work of art! And so on to the game. A game turn commences with initiative determination. This is resolved by die roll, the high roller going first. Either player may qualify for a modification to his resulting roll at various times throughout a game. Having determined which player will start, that player is then able to choose which of his formations he will activate first to commence the activation phase. Each formation has two chits which are all in a pool and drawn at random after the first is chosen in the previous phase. This drawing of chits is where Glory is similar to Victorys 'Across Five Aprils'. I find this method of game system excellent for two player and solo play as well as adding great replay value to a game. Some dislike the chaos it brings to the Battlefield. However, Glory comes with rules to play this game by the traditional I go, you go method. I'll stick to the chits myself even if it does add to the time it takes to play the game. Once a chit is chosen, that formations units follow the activation sequence. Artillery units fire, units move (except firing Artillery), Infantry units fire, Infantry/Cavairy units charge, units that did none of the previous attempt to rally. Once this has been completed, another chit is drawn at random and the activated units follow the same sequence. This continues until only one chit remains in the pool. This final chit is not drawn adding a further element of uncertainty. Once this phase has con- cluded all units on the map that are routed are moved towards a friendly entry hex. This concludes one game turn after which ail the chits are pooled and the sequence starts again. The rules for movement are fairly standard. Units actually have two movement factors, the higher only being used if a unit starts, remains and ends its move at least two hexes from enemy units. There are also some simple facing rules, with units having three front and three rear hexes. These actually have more effect on combat than movement as units can only fire or charge into their frontal hexes. Fire combat departs from the norm in that no CRT is used. A ten sided die is rolled and a unit's fire strength is added to the result. If Infantry are firing modifiers apply for terrain in the defenders hex and if the finng unit is disordered. Artillery fire is modified by range and terrain, but can also be favourably modified if firing on a target in an adjacent hex, or if two Artillery units in the same hex fire on the same target. Disordered Artillery units cannot fire at all. Each unit fires individually, even if firing on the same target. By firing on an enemy unit you automatically suffer return fire with combat results being applied simultaneously. The final modified die roll will result in either no effect, the larget taking a cohesion check, suffering a disorder or routing. A cohesion check is a simple die roll cross checked with a unit's cohesion rating. Failure leads to disorder. A disordered unit is flipped to its reverse side. Such units have lower cohesion ratings, cannot fire or do so with a negative die modifier, pay an additional movement point to enter enemy zones of control and cannot use their higher movement allowance, even if the required distance from the enemy. A disordered unit suffenng a second disorder result routs. Routed units head for the nearest exit hex in the time honoured fashion unless rallied before leaving the battlefield. Charge combat, like fire combat, is also resolved without a CRT. A ten sided die is again rolled with the result being modified by odds, terrain, cohesion, facing and if the defender is routed. Once again the results are disorders, cohesion checks and can result in routs. A routed unit that suffers another disorder is eliminated. Cavalry can retreat before charge if attacked by infantry. Poor assualts can result in the defender being able to counter charge one of his repulsed attackers, a nice touch. Speaking of nice touches, in order to fire, ( if Infantry), or charge an enemy unit, you have to be adjacent which generally means entering the enemy's frontal hexes. These are its zone of control. However, when a chit is drawn it also shows a formation's commitment range for that phase. This is two numbers between which a player must roll for each unit as it tries to enter enemy zone of control. Confederate units are generally superior and this goes someway to making up for their lack of numbers. That and better cohesion ratings. The resull of this is that, often, you will not be able to commit the number of units to an assault you expected. No more guaranteed 3-1 odds! The obvious desire of combat is to disorder your opponents units with fire then rout or eliminate them with a success ful charge. There's always the chance that a good burst of fire will rout them anyway, particularly at First Manassas when cohesion ratings are lower due to unit's inexperience. Generally, however, the game system will stand in the way of perfect assualts, so easy to set up in lesser games, so rare in actual life on the real battlefield. During the rally phase units compare a die roll with their cohesion rating. If equal or less a routed unit becomes only disordered, whilst a disordered unit is back in good shape. Routed units suffer an unfavourable die modifier during this phase and some units' cohesion ratings are so bad that simply exploding an empty crisp packet behind them will ensure they leave the field in fright. Night turns result in die modifiers that discourage combat and encourage units to rally. Nevertheless, you are not prohibited from attacking at night but odds are that commitment will be difficult and the result of any such combat may make you wonder why you bothered. Victory in each scenario is earned by gaining certain geographical objectives and eliminating/routing enemy units. All three games are very well balanced - quite an achievement, as anyone familiar with Chickamauga will know what a confused battle it was making it all the harder to simulate successfully. Glory is the first in what GMT are calling their Gameplayers series. The idea being that series games will combine sophistication with ease of accessibility. I personally think they're off to a great start with this title and look forward to more in the series. Alan Sharif